Adams made his debut for England against Spain in 1987, and played in Euro 88,
scoring one of England's two goals. He was the first player to
represent England who had been born after the 1966 World Cup win.
After a highly promising start to his international career, Adams
suffered a series of setbacks during the early 1990s. He was
surprisingly left out of the 1990 FIFA World Cup squad by manager Bobby Robson, and missed Euro 92 due to injury. However, he still maintained a regular place in defence, and after the retirement of Gary Lineker in 1992, Adams unofficially shared the captaincy of England with David Platt, though Adams became England captain outright before Euro 96, as Platt's place in the side became less secure. England reached the semi-finals of Euro 96, before losing on penalties to Germany.When England manager Glenn Hoddle took the Captain's armband from Adams and gave it to Alan Shearer
it was a bitter pill for Adams to swallow. Speaking at a fans' forum in
2008 Adams remarked "I have some resentment over the way Glenn Hoddle
gave the captaincy to Alan Shearer instead of me but I can let that go. I
reacted positively. I disagreed with him [Hoddle] and he thought Alan
could get more penalties being a centre forward. People know my reaction
to that".Adams continued to play for the national side, however and he finally appeared in a World Cup finals in 1998. His international swansong was England's largely unsuccessful Euro 2000
campaign. With Shearer retiring from international football after the
tournament, Adams regained the captaincy. However, within months,
England lost a World Cup qualifier to Germany in October 2000, the match being the last to be staged at Wembley Stadium before the stadium was torn down for rebuilding. That match was Adams's 60th Wembley appearance, a record. With Sven-Göran Eriksson eventually taking the helm and under increasing pressure for his place from the emerging and improving Rio Ferdinand,
Adams retired from international football before Eriksson picked his
first squad. He was the last England player to score at the old Wembley
Stadium when he scored England's second goal in a 2–0 friendly win over
Ukraine on 31 May 2000. This was also his first goal since he scored in a
friendly against Saudi Arabia in November 1988, thus making the record
for the longest gap between goals for England.

Serena Jameka Williams (born September 26, 1981) is an American professional tennis player who is currently ranked No. 1 in women's singles tennis. The Women's Tennis Association
(WTA) has ranked her World No. 1 in singles on six separate occasions.
She became the World N She is the only female player to have won over $60 million in prize money, and is the reigning Australian Open, US Open, WTA Tour Championships and Olympic ladies singles champion.
o. 1 for the first time on July 8, 2002, and
regained this ranking for the sixth time on February 18, 2013, becoming
the oldest world no. 1 player in WTA's history. Williams is also
regarded by some experts and former tennis players to be the greatest
female tennis player in history.
Frequently hailed as the Queen of the Court by the general media,
Williams holds the most major singles, doubles, and mixed doubles
titles combined amongst active players, male or female. Her record of 34
Grand Slam
titles puts her seventh on the all-time list: 19 in singles, 13 in
women's doubles, and 2 in mixed doubles. She is the most recent player,
male or female, to have held all four Grand Slam singles titles
simultaneously (2002–03), and the fifth woman ever to do so. She is also
the most recent player together with her sister Venus Williams
to have held all four Grand Slam women's doubles titles simultaneously
(2009–10). Her total of 19 Grand Slam singles titles is tied for third
on the all-time list with Helen Wills Moody behind Margaret Court (24 titles) and Steffi Graf (22 titles), and second in the Open Era, behind only Graf. She has won 13 Grand Slam doubles titles with her sister Venus and the pair are unbeaten in Grand Slam finals. Serena Williams is also a five-time winner of the WTA Tour Championships. The arrival of Venus and Serena Williams has been credited with launching a new era of power in women's tennis. Williams has won four Olympic gold medals, one in women's singles and three in women's doubles, an all-time record shared with her sister Venus.

miercuri, 15 aprilie 2015

Thomas Muster (born 2 October 1967 in Leibnitz, Styria, Austria) is a former World No. 1 tennis player from Austria. One of the world's leading clay court players in the 1990s, Muster won the 1995 French Open and at his peak was known as "The King of Clay." In addition, he won eight Masters 1000
series titles, placing him seventh on the all-time list. Muster is one
of only three players to win Masters titles on three different surfaces
(clay, carpet, and hard court).
When Muster was on the ATP Tour in the Twentieth Century, he wore Lotto clothing. From 1986 to 1993, Muster played with the Head
Prestige Pro 600 racquet. In the summer of 1993, Muster switched for a
few months to playing with the Head Prestige 600 racquet. In 1994 and
1995, Muster played with the Head Pro Tour 630 racquet. At the start of
1996, Muster switched to using a Kneissl
racquet, which was closely modelled on his old Pro Tour 630. At the
start of 1997, Muster switched his racquet again to the white Kneissl
Tom's Reach Machine racquet, which had a longer handle and a 28 inch
frame. In 1998, Muster used his Kneissl Tom's Reach Machine racquet on
hardcourt, grass and carpet, but went back to his old 1996 Kneissl
racquet on clay. When Muster played on the ATP Champions Tour, he used the Kneissl Tom's Reach Machine racquet.
When Muster came back to the ATP Tour in 2010, he used the Head Pro Tour 630 racquet, then switched to the Babolat
AeroPro Drive GT racquet, and then went back to the Head Pro Tour 630
racquet again before playing his last matches in late 2011. Muster
always wore Adidas clothing in his matches in 2010 and 2011.

Gabriel Omar Batistuta (Spanish pronunciation: [ɡaˈβɾjel ˈomaɾ βatisˈtuta]; born 1 February 1969), nicknamed Batigol as well as El Ángel Gabriel[el ˌaŋxel ɣaˈβɾjel] (Spanish for Angel Gabriel), is a retired professional footballer. The prolific Argentine striker played most of his club football at Fiorentina in Italy, and is the eleventh top scorer of all-time in the Italian Serie A league, with 184 goals in 318 matches.
At international level, Argentina's all-time leading goalscorer, with 56 goals in 78 matches, and he played at three World Cups. In 1999, Batistuta was third in the FIFA World Player of the Year awards.In 2004 he was named by Pelé in the FIFA 100 list of the world's greatest living players.
A powerful player with an all-round game, clinical finishing, as well
as accurate heading and free-kick taking abilities, he is known as one
of the most complete strikers of his generation. Diego Maradona stated that Batistuta is the best striker he has ever seen play the game.
he is
When his club Fiorentina was relegated to Serie B in 1993,
Batistuta stayed with the club and helped it return to the top-flight
league a year later. A popular sporting figure in Florence, the
Fiorentina fans erected a life-size bronze statue of him in 1996, in
recognition of his performances for Fiorentina. He never won the Italian league with Fiorentina, but when he moved to Roma in 2000, he finally won the Serie A title to crown his career in Italy.He played his last season in Qatar with Al-Arabi before he retired in 2005.

Fabio Cannavaro, Ufficiale OMRI (Italian pronunciation: [ˈfabjo kannaˈvaro]; born 13 September 1973) is an Italian football coach and former player who is currently the head coach of Chinese club Guangzhou Evergrande. He is considered to be one of the greatest defenders of all time and was given the name "Muro di Berlino" ("The Berlin Wall") by Italian supporters. He spent the majority of his career in Italy. He started his career at Napoli, before spending seven years at Parma, with whom he won two Coppa Italia and the 1999UEFA Cup. After spells at Internazionale and Juventus, he transferred along with manager Fabio Capello from Juventus to Real Madrid, with whom he won consecutive La Liga titles in 2007 and 2008. After returning to Juventus for one season in 2009–10, he joined Al-Ahli in Dubai, where he retired from football in 2011 after an injury-troubled season. After his retirement, he became a coaching staff of Al-Ahli,
notably as global ambassador and technical director from 2011 to 2013
and assistant coach from 2013 to 2014. In November 2014, he was
appointed as head coach of Guangzhou Evergrande.
Cannavaro has also achieved success with the Italian national team. He was part of the Italy team that won consecutive Under-21 European Championships in 1994 and 1996. After earning his first senior cap in 1997, he eventually became captain. Cannavaro led Italy to victory in the 2006 FIFA World Cup, and in 2009 overtook Paolo Maldini
as the most capped player in the country's history. He retired from
international football on 25 June 2010 following Italy's failure to
qualify for the knock-out stages of the 2010 World Cup, having amassed 136 caps and scored two goals for the senior national team.[3]
He was named the 2006 FIFA World Player of the Year, and won the Ballon d'Or award in 2006 which made him the only defender to win the award in a decade and only the third of all time after Franz Beckenbauer and Matthias Sammer, both of Germany.[4][5] In 2007 he was in the six man shortlist for the Laureus World Sportsman of the Year.[6] His younger brother Paolo is also a professional footballer, playing for Italian side Sassuolo.